2011-01-31 - A Deadly Case of Laryngitis
Night, a little after sundown, and the stars are clearly visible in the sky above. Which is why Elizraim is lying on a rooftop in the area, staring up at the sky and very lightly humming a tune. There's something about the sky, so different from eir own homeland's, that just inspired em tonight. Sitting up, ey digs in eir pockets and finds a pen and some paper for musical notation, setting to work. Meanwhile, a short distance away, a small group is taking advantage of the night in a different way. At one of the local stores--a jewelry shop--a group of thieves has broken in, stealthily robbing the shelves and aiming to sneak away. Unfortunately for them, one of the group has a slight case of butterfingers while disabling one of the case alarms, jostling it in just the wrong way. The sound of a ringing alarm breaks through the silence of the night, and the men inside the store hurriedly grab what they've managed to bag up and run out the side door into an alley... John Dethel is just minding his own self in another nearby alleyway, mostly just making some random odds and ends that he'll be selling a little later. Zoooom. The red gold blur that is Liberty Belle. Actually, she hadn't planned on patrolling tonight. She hasn't felt particularly good all day. But then she heard the alarm. She *had* to intervene. It's the way she is. She slows down as she approaches for just long enough to try and locate the men. John might well see her. Blurrily. "Come on, come on, come on!" the group's getaway driver calls out, waving the others towards him. The leader of the inside group isn't exactly being quiet either, chewing out the one that hit the alarm as they run towards the car. There's a group of five, including the driver, and a careful eye might spot a gun on the leader and the driver. The noise breaks Elizraim's train of thought, and ey scowls, standing up. Ey glares in that direction for a few moments, and then sighs, folding up eir paper and tucking it and eir pen away in eir pockets, then getting emself changed into eir costume. Someone sensitive to psionic or astral energies might note a strange sort of gathering and twisting of power, and then a winged form flies swiftly from the rooftop to another one, overlooking the scene of the fleeing criminals, thinking, A theft...how dare they interrupt my work for this sort of foolishness... John Dethel blinks as he sees a blur over in another alleyway. He pauses what he was doing, and to his dismay, the vase he was working on suddenly explodes in all directions. The sound of the explosion echoes through the alleyway. John is blown backwards by the explosion in the alleyway, landing about three feet away from where he was...course it could just be him jumping back in shock too. He appears to just stare at where his vase used to be in shock. Red and gold blur, and her first target is the leader. No, the leader's handgun, which she's going to make every effort to grab as she runs past. He'll know something happened, just not exactly what. "What the **** was that?" the leader shouts, as the explosion sounds from the other nearby alley. He reaches for his gun...but there's a zwip!, and his gun is suddenly not on his person anymore. "Holy..." he stammers, patting around and looking at the dark alleyway ground to try to find it. "Where..." "Come on, boss! We gotta go! Something just moved through here really fast!" the driver shouts. Elizraim, meanwhile, was just about to jump in when ey noticed the blur as well. A hero, I suppose? Ah, well...maybe this is taken care of, ey thinks. With that in mind, ey flits over to an angle where ey can see into the alley the explosion came from, frowning as ey looks down and spots the man staring at the ground. Another bit of technology out of control, no doubt...but he does not appear ''seriously injured...'' ey thinks. John Dethel very slowly readjusting to where he is.. "Umm... Ouch..." he shakes his head a bit, making his way shakily to his feet. He looks back out of the alleyway, perhaps meeting eyes with the one looking at him. He gives a sort of wave, though it's more like acknowledgement he's being watched. At that point, she goes after the driver's gun as well. Then, she's going to slow down, a gun in each hand. "Okay, gentlemen. I'm going to give you one chance to stand down." That's one striking woman. As it happens, the driver's just going for his gun as well...her hand brushes up slightly against his as she gets the gun, but she does indeed get it. More swearing, from all of the thieves, and then Liberty Belle's slowed down. The group stares at her for a moment or two...and then the driver hops into the car and starts to drive away as fast as he can. "Curtis, you..." the leader calls out, angrily shaking his fist after the man, and then glares at Liberty. "**** you, *****! Get her!" He charges Liberty Belle with fist pulled back to aim a heavy blow at her face, heedless of the guns (largely due to how angry he is at his driver), and after a moment's hesitation, the rest of the group follows. Elizraim peers down at John, slowly standing, and then flying into the air above the alley. It might surprise John just how small his watcher was...perhaps, though costumed as one of the superheroes, it is just a child? "You appear to have good fortune." The voice sounds young, too, not to mention foreign. "If you do in truth require the services of a healer, I suggest you contact the watch. I must attend to other events." With that, ey flies over towards the brawl again, landing on a roof nearby to watch and see if eir assistance is needed. John Dethel is confused by the flying child. He shakes his head, maybe that explosion was a little larger then he thought. He sighs and picks up the items that weren't blown up and puts them in a bag and puts it on his back. Which...normally wouldn't be a problem. Except that as mentioned before, Jesse's been feeling rotten all day. You know how a cold can just...sneak up on you and then ambush you at the very worst of moments? When she opens her mouth to speak again...nothing but a squeak comes out. No voice means no formula means no speed. She's not a bad fighter, but she's not going to last long against these guys with no help if she can't speed back up...and she's not going to shoot them. Seeming to sense something is wrong, the swiftly-closing leader grins, and swings for her face...but even as he does so, a small form comes hurtling through the air and slams its knee into the side of his head, knocking him to the ground in a daze. The other three thugs skid to a halt as Elizraim positions emself between them and Liberty Belle, using the fact that ey's flying, and those big silver-feathered wings, to make emself somewhat more impressive than eir 4'8" height can normally manage. "Hold, villains! I shall not permit you to advance one step further!" The three hesitate for a few moments, but then grin, pulling out weapons--a length of chain, a knife, and a riot baton--and stepping forward. Elizraim, undaunted, produces eir own weapon. The golden bracelet ey bears turns liquid, flowing into one of eir hands and molding itself into a black-bladed spear. That gives the men pause again. John Dethel is about to run down the alleyway away from the action. However, the said event is a bit too much interest for him. He jogs back over to the robbery in progress. Jesse still can't get a word out. With the kid helping, though, she can hold her own. Even if it is a little embarrassing to be bailed out by what appears to be a pre-teen. Great. Cell phone cameras have to have caught this. Worse than great...what if some villain works it out? At least the pre-teen appears to be a pretty good fighter, as Knife discovers when he advances despite the spear and tries a lunge--more to scare the pint-sized vigilante away from Liberty Belle than to go after em for real. A flash of a spear later, and Knife is missing a weapon and cradling an injured hand. Hurriedly, Chain runs in to try to back up his buddy, whipping his chain at Elizraim, and Elizraim catches the chain with eir spear, letting it wrap around and then yanking on the spear to pull eir opponent forward...where the butt of the spear smacks him in the head, knocking him loopy. Meanwhile, the leader has gotten to his knees, and surveys the situation. "A hostage, you idiots! Take a hostage!" He points over at John, and Baton runs over at the onlooker, raising his baton and aiming a swing for John's head to try to knock him senseless. Hostages are better when they don't struggle much, right? The leader, meanwhile, gets to his feet again, and advances on Jesse, cracking his knuckles. The kid's busy, so maybe he can take out Liberty. He swings a straight right for her gut. John Dethel sees the Baton guy come running at him. He puts his hands over his head reflexively...a flash of light is seen and a steel buckler appears over his arm that's over his head. It looks like it might have been an ancient Greek antique. Liberty Belle makes another squeaking sound as the guy charges at her. She does manage to dodge the fist, but barely. Of course, this is why she visited Grant's gym in the first place, throwing her own punch back towards the man's solar plexus. Elizraim frowns beneath eir mask as Baton runs off. Ey can't leave Liberty, as there's still too many up near her. Ey's somewhat surprised at the sudden appearance of the buckler, but nods to emself. I shall not be required to aid him, for the moment... ey thinks. Which is good, because Knife and Chain aren't giving up. Knife--sans actual knife, at the moment--jumps at Elizraim, trying to grab em and pull em down, but Elizraim simply wings upwards momentarily, dodging over Knife's form and letting him fall face-first on the ground. As ey does so, the chain slips from around eir spear, and Chain whirls it around his head and swings it for Elizraim's legs. Winging sideways in the air, Elizraim avoids the blow and then suddenly drops, landing knees-first on Knife's back, which gets a grunt of pain from Knife--though with Elizraim's low weight, he's not out yet. At the same time, ey whips the bladed end of eir spear forward, cutting across Chain's arm. With a yell of pain, Chain drops his namesake. The leader looks surprised as his blow is dodged, and though he looks like a decent fighter, he's still off balance thanks to the earlier blow to his head...Liberty's return strike catches him right where she aimed, and knocks the wind out of him, leaving him gasping for breath. He manages to keep his feet, but only just. Baton halts in pure astonishment as the guy he's fighting suddenly has a shield of sorts, and as his blow clangs off of it, he looks back to his leader as though for guidance. His leader, though, is in no condition to give it, and so Baton quickly looks back to his own fight, trying to swing a second blow, sideways, to try to get around the shield. John Dethel is not the best with the shield, but he manages to keep it in front of the baton. However, the next blow literally shatters that part of the shield. It seems that shield isn't quite as solid as it should be. Liberty Belle tries to follow up by sweeping the man's feet out from under him, although she's unsteady on hers. Definitely should have curled up with honey and lemon tonight instead of coming out. Knife moves, trying to get out from under Elizraim, but a quick, solid blow with the butt of the spear knocks him out cold. As Chain, in desperation, reaches for his weapon with his good hand, Elizraim jumps off of Knife, spinning eir spear overhead, and as Chain looks warily towards the weapon, Elizraim lands a solid kick right between Chain's legs. With a yelp, Chain falls to his knees...which leaves his head in perfect position for Elizraim to whip the butt of the spear in for a hard sideways blow. Chain falls to the ground, and a swift kick to the head sends him off to dreamland as well. The leader, dazed by the previous blows, manages to get one foot out of the way of Liberty's attack. She catches his other foot nicely, knocking it out from under him, and he falls to one knee. Still gasping, he tries to get to his feet, but stumbles, having to catch himself on the wall. Baton grins as the shield breaks, and pulls back his Baton for another blow, swinging it forward as hard as he can. He's not even trying to get around the shield, now...he's just trying to shatter the thing. John Dethel falls backwards a bit, using the last bit of his shield to block the baton. He lands on his back, looking like he might start to be getting desperate. Liberty Belle can't even ask him to surrender. She steps back, trying to give him the chance to in a more visual sense. His guys all just got beaten up by a little boy, after all. Which is worse than a little girl. The leader gets his footing, raising his fists...and spots the damage. "Oh, ****," he mouths. He hesitates, and for a moment it seems like he might do the right thing...but just for a moment. Then, he suddenly lunges forward, aiming not to hit Jesse but to try to grab one of the guns from her. "I ain't goin' to jail!" Elizraim whirls around, raising a hand, which begins to glow with silvery light. Sensing victory is near (largely because he hasn't looked behind him), Baton takes his weapon with both hands, raises it over his head, and swings a heavy downward blow aimed right for John's forehead. John Dethel pushes the leftover pieces of the shield towards the guy swinging the baton. Instead of simply hitting the baton, it explodes like a small explosive (similar as the alleyway explosion, but this time at least it's not in John's hands). Liberty Belle feels groggy. And still can't get her voice to work. She's so crawling into bed with chicken soup over this. Through the haze, though, she manages to thrust her knee upward towards his wedding tackle as he goes for the gun... Bam. The knee hits its mark, and the leader goes down...and that's about it for him, as he just lies there now, moaning. Elizraim, meanwhile, looks towards the new explosion, silvery light at the ready, but sees that there's no need for eir aid there, either--as Baton has been hurled backwards by the explosion, his weapon leaving his hands, and is now lying on the ground, clearly too out of it to fight any longer. With a sigh, Elizraim drops eir hand, and the light fades away. "Are you both unharmed?" ey calls out, as the spear liquifies again and flows onto eir arm, returning to its form as an bracelet. John Dethel is dusting the leftovers of the exploded shield off of him. "Yeah...I'm not bleeding or anything right?" he asks, as he looks himself over. He looks over at the other two. "I guess your heroes...umm...nice meeting you." Liberty Belle tries to answer. Again, nothing comes out. With a sigh, she casually robs one of the thugs of a day planner and pen. And writes. "Will be, going to go home and nurse this cold now." Sigh. How embarrassing. Elizraim nods at John, and regards Liberty for a few moments, then lets out a snicker. "Well...you did as well as can be expected, ill as you were...that is to be admired, I suppose," ey says, amusement clear in eir tone. With that, ey looks over at John. "As for you...do not be such a fool in the future! If you fight so poorly, do not approach a battlefield! It is no place for the unready." Ey flaps eir wings, starting to rise into the air. John Dethel is just confused by wording of the cherub. He wanders back to where he came from and into the alleyway. Category:Logs